A fourth straight defeat would’ve given University of Santo Tomas its longest losing streak in seven years.
Once a match point away from infamy, ace wingers Angge Poyos and Reg Jurado connived for 47 points to outlast Adamson and stop a three-game bleeding.
READ: UST denies Nitura, Adamson a huge upset in five-set thriller
And it took them five grueling sets to do so, 25-18, 23-25, 22-25, 27-25, 15-8, to avoid an encore of UAAP Season 80 in which the Golden Tigresses lost five in a row midway through the elimination round.
What went wrong this time? Partly running out of luck in the breaks of the game and uncharacteristically falling flat in the fundamentals.
“Yung assessment ko sa three-game losing streak namin, (kinakapos talaga) pagdating sa dulo. Kapag nananalo kami ng set, di namin madala yung energy towards another set,” said UST head coach Kungfu Reyes.
Skill-wise, UST’s bread and butter last season has now been their Achilles heel — passing.
“Technically, sa pasa, du’n kami nagiging erratic. Yung pasa namin, nagiging unstable yung atake namin. Yung service din namin, medyo malalambot, that’s why yung game namin against La Salle, ni isang service ace wala kaming na-produce,” Reyes said.
“Binabalikan ulit namin what went wrong, saan kami pwede mag-adjust. Yun lang naman. Game of adjustments, at dito kami nag-focus ngayong game.”
In a rare position where UST has to ‘sink or swim’ if it dropped four in succession, the Golden Tigresses chose to keep on swimming and fighting.
“Yung mga talo namin na game, tapos na yun eh, may mga takeaways na kami. Ito talaga, ginawan na namin ng paraan kasi talagang napakahirap kung mawawala sa’min tong panalo na to,” Reyes said.
“Either we will sink or swim, so at least nandu’n pa rin kami sa swim. Hindi kami lulubog nang basta-basta.”
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